The Companion

ERT Original Series

Set during Alexander the Great's eastern campaigns (~330 BC), The Companion follows Marcus, 28, a Black man raised by a Macedonian military family — the Agrianes clan who served Philip II and continued with Alexander — as a Companion cavalry officer. Marcus is entirely Macedonian in language, culture, and identity, bearing a Greek name in the Macedonian tradition, speaking Macedonian Greek, trained in the cavalry tactics of Alexander's elite force. He is one of a diverse multinational force that Alexander's campaigns assembled. During the conquest of Persia, Marcus encounters Daria, a Persian noblewoman from the ancient city of Persepolis — a woman whose world is being absorbed by the very army Marcus serves. Their relationship is one of the most politically fraught possible kinds: love between conqueror and conquered, honest on both sides in ways that the historical moment makes almost impossible. The series is a meditation on war, love, and what loyalty means when the empire you serve is also the catastrophe of someone you love. Episode 1 — Persepolis The army enters Persepolis. Marcus encounters Daria in the library — she is removing scrolls before the soldiers reach them. He helps her. Neither knows what this means yet. Episode 5 — The Language Marcus learning Persian. Daria teaching him. The intimacy of language instruction in the middle of a war. Episode 10 — The Covenant Series finale: Marcus choosing, at personal cost to his military standing, to protect Daria's family. What he gives up and what he gains are equal and opposite.

Story added by mr95 on July 26, 2026